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October 10, 2014

Live Tweeting Theatre?

UA Theatre and Dance is always looking for new and exciting ways to showcase the arts, so we’re excited to be bringing live-tweets to Friday’s performance of Lend Me a Tenor! We’ve invited two of the city’s most prominent news groups to send a representative for the inaugural run of the program. The reviewers will live tweet their reactions to shows and encourage dialog from inside the theatre with the outside world. This means that the show can be broadcast in some form to those who aren’t able to see UA shows typically. We’re going to start reaching out to audiences in new ways across the board, and this is just one!

We’ve got Danny Salter from WVUA-TV and Chris Beacham from 90.7 The Capstone coming in tonight to give people a great chance to interact with local media and really bring attention to UA productions. Tonight will give folks at home, out and about, or anywhere with their phone, the ability to instantly hop into a discussion about the show. These could be simple quotes, remembrances, or full blown online dialogues available for anyone to view. UA Theatre and Dance isn’t just exploring options to say we’re on the frontlines of art, we want to make sure whatever we do drives a sense of connection for audiences, actors, and the community as a whole.

Our fantastic scenic crew working on light-damping boxes.

But, just in case you’re worried, please, don’t be! The tweeters will be seated in their own special seats, and they will have special light-blocking “technologies” to use their phones in to not disturb the audience. We know that this experiment is new and exciting, but we would never compromise the original and standard theatre experience for anyone on purpose. This program won’t appear at every show, either; we’re only going to roll it out for appropriate shows, more light-hearted comic fare. This isn’t to say that we think those shows are worth less or drastically different, but we think this will complement funnier shows much better.

The design and fabrication process for our light-blockers may be a secret, but you can see the finished product!

We really hope that this will bring folks closer to the theatre, establish connections with local media, and keep theatre and the arts in the forefront of conversations across our community. Hopefully, you can interact with us tonight on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/uatheatredance with the hashtag #LendMeATweet; or come to the show in person and get the full experience!